USC fires Kiffin; Orgeron named interim

Coach Lane Kiffin, shown here reacting to a play from Saturday night's 62-41 loss to Arizona State, learned early Sunday morning that he has been fired by USC athletic director Pat Haden. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES

LOS ANGELES -- The end came the way no one could have guessed, with USC athletic director Pat Haden and Coach Lane Kiffin huddled in a conference room of a satellite airport terminal at 3 a.m.

That’s how Kiffin learned, early Sunday morning, that he had been fired, less than halfway through his fourth season. A litany of on-field woes and off-field distractions caught up with the maligned coach, whose complicated reign ended hours after USC’s 62-41 loss to Arizona State on Saturday night.

Assistant head coach Ed Orgeron will replace Kiffin, on an interim basis, for the rest of this season. Haden, in a news conference Sunday afternoon, declined to go into specifics about Kiffin’s eventual replacement.

Haden, who accompanied the team on the trip to Arizona State -- along with President Max Nikias and other school officials -- praised Kiffin’s work but said ``a variety of things’’ led him to dismiss Kiffin, who had a 28-15 overall record and had to guide the Trojans through crippling NCAA sanctions.

``This has been brewing for awhile,’’ Haden said, ``and I haven’t felt particularly good, even from the Hawaii game (on Aug. 29). We haven’t been the consistent team we need to be at USC.’’

Haden faced significant fan and booster heat to fire Kiffin after last year’s 7-6 record, but Haden stoutly defended his coach. In late July, in a video released by the school, Haden declared himself to be ``100 percent’’ behind Kiffin. As recently as this month, Haden indicated that firing Kiffin would be premature.

The final straw came Saturday night, when the Trojans led 21-20 early in the third quarter then allowed 28 consecutive third-quarter points and lost to Arizona State.

Haden said that before the flight to Los Angeles took off, he told Kiffin that they needed to speak upon landing. Shortly before 4 a.m., after the team landed at a Los Angeles International Airport satellite terminal, Haden informed Kiffin of his firing as part of a 45-minute discussion.

``Lane was clearly disappointed,’’ Haden said. ``He’s a great recruiter, he battled me. He really tried to keep his job, and I respect him for that.’’

Now, in steps Orgeron, at least for eight games, and he’s certainly no stranger to USC.

Orgeron, 52, came to USC in 1998 under then-Coach Paul Hackett, and stayed through the early years of Pete Carroll’s tenure. Orgeron left in 2004 to become head coach at Mississippi, but was fired after a 10-25 record. After one year in the NFL, Orgeron joined Kiffin, first at Tennessee and then at USC.

A fiery, gravelly voiced motivator, Orgeron pledged to bring some life back to the Trojans. He talked of high-fiving players on the sidelines and was supportive of re-opening practices to reporters.

`` I really feel we have very strong leadership on this football team,’’ Orgeron said, ``and I’m excited to be their coach for the next eight games and we’ll see where it takes us.’'

Orgeron said offensive coordinator Clay Helton will call plays for him. Helton held that title since the start of this season, but Kiffin called plays, a sticking point for many of his critics.

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